Is the virus still raging in the US?

Q

Is the Covid situation still bad in the United States?

A

Unfortunately, things are going from bad to worse in the States. The country is now seeing more than 130,000 new coronavirus cases a day, the highest number of infections since February.

More worryingly, patients are being admitted to hospital with serious symptoms in alarming numbers.

In Florida, which has a population of 22million, more than 16,000 people are now in hospital with Covid.

In Texas, with a population of 29million, over 10,000 patients were admitted to hospital last week alone.

In Houston, one of the largest cities in Texas, tents have been erected outside two major hospitals to treat an overflow of coronavirus patients.

Experts say that both of these heavily populated states are suffering in large part because of poor vaccination rates.

Less than half of Florida’s population are fully vaccinated against Covid.

Texas has even worse numbers, with only 44 per cent of its residents fully vaccinated.

Both states have also received criticism for refusing to enforce mask-wearing in public despite the resurgence of cases.

In July, Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said:

‘This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated.’